Feel Good Friday - Elephants Alive

Tuesday is World Elephant Day, an international event dedicated to the preservation and protection of the world's elephants. That makes today the perfect Friday to highlight the work being done by Elephants Alive. 

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Hoedspruit, Limpopo, South Africa, the mission of Elephants Alive is “to ensure the survival of elephants and their habitats, and to promote the harmonious co-existence of elephants and people.”

Elephants are a keystone species, meaning they have a disproportionately large effect on their natural environment relative to their abundance. According to the Elephants Alive website, in the last 100 years Africa’s elephants have declined by 97%. That’s why the work they do is so important. You can watch this one-minute video for a quick overview or keep reading for more details.

A main focus of Elephants Alive is tracking the movements of elephants. In the last 29 years, they have collared and tracked over 200 elephants and identified and named 2000 more. This enables them to to inform reserve managers, conservationists and landowners about elephants seasonal activities and vegetation impact. It also allows them to find ways to reduce human-elephant conflict. 

Tracking allowed Elephants Alive to identify elephant corridors across South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Eswatini, and then work with local farmers in those corridors to develop alternative sustainable livelihoods to supplement their incomes and increase their economic resilience.

Elephants Alive has also been tracking trees. Since 2004, they’ve monitored 3000+ individual trees to understand elephant impact. This includes trees containing nesting sites of endangered birds such as the southern ground hornbill. 

The program that brings it all together is the Bees, Trees, Elephants and People program. Elephants don’t like bees, so Elephants Alive trains people how to install beehives in trees to protect them from elephant impact. In addition, the bees pollinate the trees and community members make “elephant friendly” honey and beeswax products to sell. There is an all-female anti-poaching unit in southern Mozambique called the Black Mambas who has installed 100 beehives!

Relocating elephants that wander off private game reserves, removing snares, and rescuing orphaned elephant calves round out their work with the elephants. Their community awareness work includes training the Black Mambas, introducing grandmothers to the study elephants and engaging young people from disadvantaged communities in wildlife through photography.

If this has inspired you to support Elephants Alive and the work they do, you can make a donation and become an elephant guardian and as always, amplify their work on social media. Follow Elephants Alive on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and subscribe to their YouTube channel. Happy World Elephant Day!